I thought that might grad your attention. Yesterday I was going through a bunch of barber dimes and just realized what an extremely rare coin this is. Only 24 minted!! I found a 1894. I have been looking at it REAL closely ever since. But alas...no S. Here is an article about this dime that I thought you all might find interesting. I did. Enjoy some history. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/27/DIME.TMP
Carl: Since there were 24 minted (as stated in the SF mint records of the day) and only 12 are currently known, you do have a chance of getting one. Sure, a slim chance, but, hey, ya never know.
Love the story about the mint director's daughter lol... can you imagine that? "Here's a rare dime, one of only 24 ever minted..." "Cool! I'm going to buy ice cream with it." Hope that was really good ice cream lol... Kind of makes me want to go back in time to 1894 San Francsico and figure out where she'll be to sell her that ice cream...
Troodon: Yes, a great story, if possibly fanciful. However, she did keep two of them. Still, that turned out to be a very expensive ice cream cone. I wonder if it really cost 10 cents back then.
Not enough for a fancier ice cream cone, even in 1894, but would seem a reasonable price for a basic kid sized ice cream coin by 1894 standards. I wonderat how these coins could even be justified as legal, as the mint director clearly had no authorization to mint them. (Same case for the 1913 Liberty nickels.) It seems the Treasury is selective about what they'll allow and what they won't. Makes me wonder why they're so zealous about confiscating 1933 double eagles, which were at least legally minted even if the legality of them leaving the mint was questionable, but turn a blind eye to rarities that probably were not even legal to make. Seems inconsistent at best and hypocritical at worst... if they're willing to give the benefit of the doubt to rarieties they can't prove to be illegal, why doesn't that standard hold to all such rarities? Just annoys me that they don't seem to have a consistent standard lol...
